The alpine farmers in Werdenfelser Land had long suspected that a wolf was roaming around in the mountains of their region and eating their sheep. Now they can feel confirmed. According to the State Office for the Environment (LfU), traces of a wolf were discovered on three of the five sheep cracks between the beginning of July and the third week of August. Genetic tests on the carcasses of the sheep have now shown that.
But that doesn’t mean that the wolf also hunted down and killed the sheep. Because the investigations have also shown that a dog was involved in four of the five cases, it was even always the same. In one case, gene traces from two dogs were even detected. In the fifth case, no genetic test could be carried out because the keeper of the killed sheep only reported the carcass several days later and disposed of it in consultation with the LfU.
This leaves the question open as to whether it was the dog or the wolf that hunted and killed the sheep. It cannot be answered with 100% certainty, as a LfU spokesman said. Because traces of both animals were found on the carcasses. It can no longer be determined which is the older one and thus which one is the hunter’s. However, the LfU experts suspect that it was the dog. Because in the bite wounds on the legs and buttocks of the carcasses, the remains of the dog’s saliva were discovered, the spokesman said. This is an indication that the sheep were also hunted by him.
The wolf tracks, on the other hand, came exclusively from the body parts of the sheep that had been eaten. This indicates that the wolf discovered the animals when they were already dead and then attacked them. The wolf, by the way, is a male with the scientific name GW2906m. He comes from the Dinaric Mountains in the Balkans and has never performed in Bavaria before.